Nobel Prizewinning Chemistry Process Helps in Medicine Synthesis

By Katherine Hobson

Ei-ichi Negishi of Purdue University speaks with the media on the phone after winning the 2010 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in chemistry today for developing a process that, among other things, helps synthesize medicines. (Here’s the WSJ story.)

Richard Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki were cited for their work in “palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis.” That’s a way of joining together carbon atoms — using the element palladium as a catalyst — in a more efficient and precise way than was previously done. And joining together carbon atoms helps scientists do a lot of nifty things, including making medicines.

One example cited by the Nobel folks involves a marine sponge called Discodermia dissoluta, collected in the Caribbean in the late 1980s. As a defensive mechanism, the sponges “produce large and complex chemical molecules that are poisonous and that prevent other organisms from exploiting them,” according to the Nobel materials.

And the substance produced by this particular sponge, discodermolide, seemed to have anti-cancer properties — at least in a test tube. The process that the Nobel winners helped develop made it possible to artificially produce the substance in large enough quantities to make research practical. Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute licensed the substance to Novartis, but clinical trials were discontinued due to toxicity, FAU says. Research on discodermolide continues, and the university is seeking new development partners.

The Nobel materials also say that palladium-catalyzed cross coupling helped chemists to synthesize substances being examined for use against colon cancer, herpes and HIV. And it’s being used by scientists attempting to modify the antibiotic vancomycin so that it’s effective against bacterial strains that have become resistant to the drug.

Update: This post has been updated with additional information from Florida Atlantic University.